Elevating beds in hotels reduce 50% occupational accidents of chambermaids

The installation of elevator systems in hotel beds reduces accidents involving chambermaids by more than 50%, according to a study carried out by the Meliá hotel chain together with the Balearic Institute of Occupational Health and Safety (IBASSAL).

The work, called “The lifting bed as a bet for the improvement of the ergonomic conditions of the apartment department”, has been carried out in 14 establishments of the chain together with a hundred waitresses. “The musculoskeletal disorder caused by doing the bed is zero”, detailed the global director of Occupational Health at Melià, Carlos Senz.

According to this report, the force that workers have to use is 8.4 times higher when they do it in a single bed without a lift than when they do it in a lifting bed, and it is multiplied by 7.3 when they have double beds.

The President of the Govern, Francina Armengol, has participated in the presentation of the study accompanied by the Executive Vice President CEO of Melià Hotels International, Gabriel Escarrer, with whom she has also visited one of the rooms of the Palma Marina where an elevator system for the beds has already been installed .

Armengol has recalled that the installation of this type of beds is one of the measures present in the future tourism law and that it is “contrasted from the technical and scientific rigor”. In this sense, he pointed out that 27% of professional illnesses in the hospitality industry are suffered by chambermaids and that a good part of these illnesses are caused by overexertion.

The study was carried out on January 31 to assess the effort involved in making the bed in a room that has mechanisms to raise this piece of furniture, and compare it with rooms where the beds do not have elevators.